Better to light a candle than curse the darkness. While info out of London Ontario and Cobalt [in re status of refinery and financing] seems in limbo [eg is May PR still functional, eg rebuild in July and pdt in Q4] good things are happening for metals in the world at large. So, as I'm still long, still stupid and still married (last time I checked)and thus continue to hope that all remains well with the corportation, here are some bon mots:
Ni LME inventories at 12 k, or less than one week world supply. Maybe LME is now irrelevant.
Copper approaching 90 c. So, as I recall, with 4% Cu at Maskwa, ore value is going up, and making production more realistic.
Falconbridge union vows no surrender
By Lesley Wroughton
TORONTO, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The union representing 1,260 striking workers at nickel-copper producer Falconbridge Ltd.'s (Toronto:FL.TO - news) Sudbury, Ontario, facilities vowed no surrender to company demands on Tuesday, saying it would not make the first move to end the five-week work stoppage.
Canadian Auto Workers union negotiators rejected a contract proposal by the company, which produces about 4 percent of the world's nickel at Sudbury, on Monday night, saying it fell short in up to 20 key areas, including contracting out, job transfers and compensation for skilled positions.
The union declined to put the offer to its members for a vote, saying it had the full backing of its membership.
The workers voted to reject an earlier contract proposal by the company on August 1, when they went on strike. Negotiations only resumed last week.
``We're going to stay out one day longer than them,'' union president Buzz Hargrove told Reuters. ``At the moment they are not worried about the downtime of the mines but at some point that will change and it will become our dispute then.''
Hargrove is the most powerful union leader in Canada and his union represents workers at some of the country's biggest corporations, including all three of the North American automakers. He said Falconbridge was deliberately creating an atmosphere for a strike.
``They have put a demand in on every section of the collective agreement and nobody that has been around labour-management relations to any degree accepts that this is a reasonable way to address change,'' he added.
The company has said union representation remains the major issue of difference. Falconbridge wants to scale back the number of company-paid union representatives at Sudbury, including cutting back senior union executives to two from four.
It said on Monday that its current proposal is fair and addresses the union's key concerns.
It said it had improved the pre-strike monetary offer and, among other things, had committed to not further subdivide its two Sudbury business units.
The company has said it wants the new contract to show more flexibility and to reflect changes in the global marketplace.
Hargrove said management was trying to gut the collective agreement. ``They are trying to gut the union, trying to eliminate the quality of work-life language that miners have fought for for over 60 years,'' he said.
Falconbridge spokesman Craig Crosby said the union had not given the company any specifics on its demands.
``What we hear is all these concerns, but they need to prioritize their top specific concerns. They have to narrow the issues so we have something to work with. So, negotiations are stalled because of it,'' Crosby said.
``They keep stating the same generic perceptions of what they think the proposal is taking away without giving us anything concrete to work with,'' he added.
Also, Crosby said, the company had reviewed its situation with regard to nickel deliveries to customers from its refinery in Norway and would meet obligations until the end of October.
Falconbridge's mill at Sudbury produces about 35,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate and 41,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate annually. The concentrate is shipped to Norway for refining.
``They've looked at it and they feel we can also commit to October as well,'' Crosby said. Declaring force majeure would allow Falconbridge to legally suspend contractual obligations on nickel exports.
Falconbridge has declared partial force majeure on its copper deliveries. Its smelter in Sudbury has been running at 60 percent capacity since August 13 with the help of stockpiles from its Raglan mine in northern Quebec and recycled custom feed.
Its Craig mine in Sudbury has been operating at reduced levels for the past week, producing about 5,000 tonnes of ore a week from approximately 15,000 tonnes weekly before the strike. The remaining three mines and mill at Sudbury remain shut.
Inco to raise stake in Voisey's Bay project
(UPDATE: Changes throughout. Adds byline, background and company quotes)
By Scott Anderson
TORONTO, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Inco Ltd. (Toronto:N.TO - news) proved on Wednesday it is not ready to give up on developing its Voisey's Bay project and launched a C$195-million ($130.7 million) share buyback plan, boosting its stake in the nickel-rich property in northern Labrador to 100 percent.
The Canadian nickel miner said it intends to purchase all of its outstanding Class VBN Shares (Toronto:Nv.TO - news), which are linked to the Voisey's Bay nickel deposit, to avoid conflicts between VBN holders and other shareholders.
The plan also raises the company's stake in the potentially lucrative property to 100 percent from 75 percent, giving it total control over the project which has been bogged down since January after the company and the Newfoundland provincial government failed to reach a development agreement.
Under the terms of the buyback, Inco said it would offer C$7.50 per VBN share plus 0.45 of an Inco common share purchase warrant for a total of C$195 million in cash and 11.7 million warrants, based on 26 million Class VBN shares outstanding.
The warrants will have an exercise price of C$36, which is 33 percent higher than Inco's common share closing price of C$27.25 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
The buyback depends on the company acquiring 90 percent of the 26 million outstanding shares.
In noon trading, Inco shares were off 30 Canadian cents at C$26.80, while its VBN shares were up C$2.15 to C$11.15 on heavy volume of 1.6 million shares.
The VBN shares were issued in August 1996 as part of the acquisition of Diamond Field Resources Inc., and were designed to reflect a 25-percent interest in the adjusted net income of Voisey Bay Nickel Co. Ltd.
Inco also said that Franco-Nevada Mining Corp. Ltd. (Toronto:FN.TO - news) had agreed to tender its 37-percent position in the VBN shares to the issuer bid.
Financing for the share purchase will be funded through cash on hand and short-term borrowing under an existing credit facility.
``The buyback of the class VBN shares at this time provides greater assurance that we will achieve full value for our investment in Voisey's Bay since we will eliminate the potential conflicts created by the different classes and all shareholder interests will be aligned,'' Inco president Scott Hand, said during a conference call.
Development of the project stalled earlier this year after Inco was unable to reach a deal with Newfoundland to get the project, often hailed as its crown jewel, under way this year.
Inco's refusal to guarantee that it would build a smelter in the province at an estimated cost of C$1 billion was seen as the stumbling block in the talks.
However, the company said it remains committed to Voisey's Bay, despite slashing to three from 23 its Newfoundland staff, maintaining only a small exploration team.
The company insists it is still open to renewing talks with the Newfoundland government. Although it remains in contact with the government, no formal talks have been held since January.
``We are open to come up with a project that meets our economic needs and is acceptable to the needs of the people of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador,'' Hand said.
($1 equals $1.48 Canadian)
Anglo disposes of Tanzanian nickel interests
(UPDATE: Adds Barrick Gold comments in paragraphs 3 and 12 to 14, adds Barrick stock price in last para)
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Anglo American Corp. of South Africa , an Anglo American Plc subsidiary, said on Wednesday it disposed of its stake in the Kabanga and Kagera nickel prospects in Tanzania to a Barrick Gold Corp. subsidiary.
Anglo American reached an agreement with Barrick (Toronto:ABX.TO - news) subsidiary Sutton Resources Ltd. to dispose of its nickel interests to another Barrick unit, Anglo said in a statement.
The financial terms of the deal, which a Barrick spokesman termed ``nominal'', were not released. Toronto-based Barrick acquired Sutton last year.
``We were only a very short way down the line on Kabanga and, while it is a very good project, the decision was taken to withdraw from this one because of all the other prospects and projects we have got,'' Anglo spokeswoman Glen Finnegan told Reuters.
She declined to give more details of the deal.
The Kabanga prospect was a joint venture between Anglo American and Sutton, with Anglo entitled to earn a 60-percent interest in Kabanga Nickel Co., which holds the mineral rights at Kabanga.
Kabanga has been estimated to have a 21 million tonne resource of 2.2 percent nickel and could yield nickel for 20-25 years.
Finnegan said Anglo had spent $9.0 million on a pre-feasibility study concluded last year ahead of a full feasibility study that would be completed in 2001.
Production was expected to begin only in 2004 or 2005. The Kabanga project required capital of $250 million in May 1999 terms.
The Kagera prospect was also a joint venture between the two companies.
Finnegan said although Anglo was pulling out of this project, it would still remain active in Tanzania where it retained an exploration office and had good target regions for gold, copper and zinc prospects.
Acquiring a base metal project is out of the ordinary for Barrick Gold, North America's second-largest gold producer, and the company said it would closely examine the newly gained property before making a decision on whether to keep it.
``We will just carry forward with an assessment and evaluate the property going forward and decide what to do with it,'' said Barrick spokesman Vince Borg.
``But this is not a branching out for us. It just happened to come along with the Sutton acquisition. We'll take the property and extract value from it.''
Anglo shares were last 25 pence lower at 39.81 pounds in London, while they were 0.25 percent or 100 cents higher at 405.00 rand on the Johannesburg bourse.
Barrick stock was up 45 Canadian cents at C$24.30 in late trade on Wednesday.
So a good weekend to all, long and short. If any of you are in Oakville this weekend root for Tom Scherrer, our home town boy. [Clinton was here last week and played 18 with Tommie; for whatever reason, he didn't ask me to fill him in on Cobalt and the Strategic Defense Reserve}
Oh well. |
